Developer Interview With AusGamers
A few days ago Lead Designer Kevin Martens and Lead Writer Brian Kindregan gave an interview to gaming site AusGamers. It actually contains quite interesting topics like PvP, lore, game mechanics and much more. We've posted some quotes below but the whole thing is definitely worth checking out!

DiabloFans Quote:

Kevin: I think it’s really interesting to think about the background of this Universe, and: what choices do angels and demons have? That’s a classic thing in Western mythology, that humans have a choice. You could argue that Lucifer, for example, and Diablo beside him, that neither of them have a choice, they have to do what they were built to do. Lucifer, in his case, he had to tempt humans etc, and Diablo is the Lord of Terror: what can he do but terrorise? What can he do but corrupt? Does he even have a choice? That’s interesting, and it’s a question we’ll explore in the future, by the way [laughs].

An interesting point to make, for anyone that is a lore-nerd out there, is that Malthael did make a choice to do something different, and he was no longer Wisdom; he became Death. Players obviously have a choice, but previous to this, humanity haven’t often had the power where their choices mattered, they were at the mercy of angels and demons. That’s no longer true; clearly proven by the hero of Diablo III.

***

Kevin: So PvP has been difficult for us. The reasons are actually pretty easy, it’s when people start asking “What about this, and what about this?” that things start getting complex. The reason why it’s difficult to do PvP, is that we made a vast PvE game. The core fantasy for us was “I want to kill lots of monsters in lots of awesome ways”. You can’t kill lots of players in those awesome ways, or lots of players will get ticked off because they have the exact same fantasy as you, and they want to kill you in vast ways, so essentially, the game is automatically changing.

That, plus the vast differentiation in power, and gear, and we didn’t try to balance the classes against each other, we tried to balance the classes against monsters. So your DPS versus all of the different kinds of monsters works well, but with DPS against each other, it becomes a super-rapid game of “Oh, you’re dead; oh, you’re dead; oh, you’re dead” and it’s just not fun.

We also don’t want people to play a different character: “That’s my hero; that’s the gear I found; I killed X monster and got X legendary” that’s the fantasy of Diablo. People say “well, why not make pre-made characters? Give me two different Barbs I can chose from, and that’s my PvP Barb”, but that’s not your PvP Barb, that’s some random one. If your gear doesn’t matter, and this game is about killing monsters and getting loot, what we’re actually making is a different game.

So we’re trying to find that balance, where we can find a PvP mode, a type of game where you can use your hero, that’s really important to us, or else we might as well make a new game.

Fist Weapons, Wands and Transmogrification
As it currently stands Fist Weapons and Wands will be their own category when it comes to Transmogrification, so they won't be able to be Transmogrified into other types of weapons.

Fist weapons may look like they share animations with some one-handed weapons, but it's actually unique (a kick animation is included in the rotation). Remember that these animations are a bit different when it comes to using abilities. Some abilities use their own unique animations that are not reliant on which weapon you have equipped, while others do.

To answer your question simply, fist weapons are in their own category for transmogrification, and cannot be changed into one-handed swords or other weapons.

Same with other 1hd class specific weapons (excluding bows/xbows/2hd xbows). Like transmorg 1hd sword into wands or 1hd sword into ceremonial knives? Possible?
Wands are also unique, as they do not share their animations with any other weapon. Ceremonial knives, however, have overlap with a couple of other categories, including daggers and some spears, so they can be transmogrified into those.

Estimates on Pre-Expansion Patch
Lylirra revealed that the pre-expansion patch will come "2 weeks to 2 months" before the expansion. It's not exactly a date, but it's good info!

Clarification: We've no additional patches planned before the pre-expansion patch (which will include Loot 2.0 and Paragon 2.0, plus a variety of other system changes and tuning). There isn't a date set for that yet, mostly because it's still under development. Reaper of Souls isn't scheduled to release until 2014, though, and our pre-expansion patches typically hit between 2 weeks to 2 months before -- so that should help give you a better time frame.

What about the PTR?
We're definitely looking forward to providing a PTR, but don't have a set date for that either. Once we do, you can be sure that we'll announce it (you know, as we do).

Will the skill tuning in recent datamining be coming into the pre-expansion patch?such as Battle Rage - Into the Fray, Shadow Power - Gloom, and etc.
That's currently the plan, yup. Just keep in mind that datamined information isn't considered final and may actually change quite a bit before making its way into a public build.

Changes to the Other Acts
Monsters and loot are receiving changes across the board. While some of the other randomization features coming in Act V are unique to that act, Acts I-IV will still benefit from changes coming in Loot 2.0. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Quiting Trolling. The game is far from dead I still get instant Q's son and everytime a new person. We got a ton of people coming back from PoE cause that game is junk ( What a suprise there ) Atlease the D2 fanboys got something now a guess. Mabye they will shut up now.

Kevin: So PvP has been difficult for us. The reasons are actually pretty easy, it’s when people start asking “What about this, and what about this?” that things start getting complex. The reason why it’s difficult to do PvP, is that we made a vast PvE game. The core fantasy for us was “I want to kill lots of monsters in lots of awesome ways”. You can’t kill lots of players in those awesome ways, or lots of players will get ticked off because they have the exact same fantasy as you, and they want to kill you in vast ways, so essentially, the game is automatically changing.

Daiblo is a PvE game. there shouldnt even be PvP. PvP was in D2 just for a time kill. Funny how bliizard is worryied about class balance when there was no such balance in D2. Yet nobody complained at all. Funny dont you think? 90% of PvPers in D2 was Orb sorc. Dont waste time on people that want to think they are "skilled" because they "pwned" someone in a video game.

Instead " Fix " ( as some people say ) in the game and get RoS out and done right.

Quiting Trolling. The game is far from dead I still get instant Q's son and everytime a new person. We got a ton of people coming back from PoE cause that game is junk ( What a suprise there ) Atlease the D2 fanboys got something now a guess. Mabye they will shut up now.

You can't be a troll for voicing your honest opinion. He obviously meant that the game was dead to him, not that noone plays it anymore.
Tbh. i don't find it very enjoyable to play d3 atm either, as i know i will be playing ladder as soon as RoS comes out, and the chances for getting an upgrade is abyssmal anyways.

Daiblo is a PvE game. there shouldnt even be PvP. PvP was in D2 just for a time kill. Funny how bliizard is worryied about class balance when there was no such balance in D2. Yet nobody complained at all. Funny dont you think? 90% of PvPers in D2 was Orb sorc. Dont waste time on people that want to think they are "skilled" because they "pwned" someone in a video game.

Instead " Fix " ( as some people say ) in the game and get RoS out and done right.

Just because you don't like PvP doesn't mean that there can't be a decent PvP system in a game like Diablo. Some people would love to have one. That doesn't neccesarily mean it's just because they want to "feel skilled to pwn noobs" or whatever your point was.

I don't think it's "funny" at all that Blizzard worries about class balance in a PvP scenario. If they're going to implement something more advanced than brawling, then they obviously have to at least balance it slightly, for it to be remotely fun. They did afterall promise a PvP system. A promise they haven't lived up to so far.

Atlease the D2 fanboys got something now a guess. Mabye they will shut up now.

You mean the people that made Diablo the big name in gaming that it is today? The people that basically maintained all the pre-launch D3 hype, and thus contributed hugely to the sales figures (even if many were later disappointed with the game)?
Quit talking crap.

Wait, if we can't PvP, why did we even collect the damn gear in the first place? What the hell is all of this gear for?

Newsflash: a lot of people don't care about PvP in an action-RPG setting.

Hint: I care... but not that much.

Check PoE's PvP activity and how not even 5% of its playerbase ever try PvP. This gear is for slaying Hellspawns and farming better gear, which is the core experience of any Diablo game. DotA 2 and LoL might suit your playstyle better, if you don't mind the disappointment of not being able to roflstomp people because you have 500 hours played and they have 10.

If a game is not designed from the ground up for PvP it usually ends up being ruined by the later edition of PvP and all the PvP balancing that has to be done. They should have designed D3 with PvP in mind from the beginning. Blizzard aren't idiots they know their fan base and they know they wanted PvP.

Personally I think that the AH's will shut down and within a week or two of that we'll get 2.0; I can't see Blizzard allowing the new awesome shiny loot to make it up there.
That said, I believe that RoS will make it's way out in May to coincide with the 2 year anniversary of the release of D3.
I'll be happy to be wrong about that though, the sooner any of that stuff gets here is A-OK with me

Pvp is fixed with a pvp debuff that allows 1% character damage or something along those lines instead of 100%.

I don't think that would balance pvp, or blizzard would have easily come up with it by now. The effects of runes and skills needs to be balanced to, and do you really think they wanna spend their time on that? If you want a hardcore pvp system, play something else.

Pvp is fixed with a pvp debuff that allows 1% character damage or something along those lines instead of 100%.

I don't think that would balance pvp, or blizzard would have easily come up with it by now. The effects of runes and skills needs to be balanced to, and do you really think they wanna spend their time on that? If you want a hardcore pvp system, play something else.

It's a band-aid fix that could work, but if it doesn't, further balancing needs to be done, obviously. Or an option to segregate the pvp from pve mode.